Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Building a Diverse WorkforceCornell

Certificate Program

Devon Proudfoot is an Assistant Professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell University’s ILR School. Professor Proudfoot’s current research focuses on gender issues in the workplace; she is particularly interested in understanding how gender stereotypes impact well-being and motivation at work as well as how people experience gender across different cultures. At Cornell, Professor Proudfoot teaches courses on Diversity and Inclusion at both the undergraduate and Master’s levels.

Before becoming the Academic Director for Workplace Inclusion and Diversity Programs, Courtney L. McCluney was an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior in the ILR School at Cornell University. Dr. McCluney’s research examines how practices and norms in organizational contexts shape marginalized groups’ experiences and perpetuate inequitable structures. Before completing a postdoctoral fellowship in the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, she earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Michigan and B.A. in Psychology and Interpersonal/Organizational Communications at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was a Ronald E. McNair Scholar. Dr. McCluney has published numerous articles and book chapters in academic and practitioner outlets on diversity, inclusion, race, and gender at work. Prior to her academic career, she completed a research fellowship at Catalyst, Inc., and an AmeriCorps social impact fellowship in Boston, MA. Dr. McCluney is a first-generation college graduate from High Point, NC.

JR Keller is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Studies in the ILR School at Cornell University. His research focuses on how firms combine internal and external hiring to meet their human capital needs as well as the various ways individuals build careers within and across organizations. Professor Keller has explored the factors which lead firms to hire externally versus promote from within, supply chain approaches to talent management, and the use of nonstandard work arrangements. His work has appeared in the Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, ILR Review, and the Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, as well as a recent book on strategic talent management. Professor Keller earned his Ph.D. in Management from the Wharton School of Business and holds a Master’s in Adult Education from Indiana University along with undergraduate degrees in Finance and Computer Applications from the University of Notre Dame.

Sean Fath is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell’s ILR School. Broadly, his research focuses on managerial decision making, bias reduction in social evaluations, and perceptions of social and organizational hierarchy. Before coming to Cornell, Professor Fath received his Ph.D. in Management and Organizations from Duke University.

Susanne M. Bruyère, Ph.D., CRC, is currently Professor of Disability Studies and Academic Director of the K. Lisa Yang and Hock E. Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, Cornell University ILR (Industrial and Labor Relations) School, Ithaca, N.Y.

The Yang-Tan Institute is a research, training, and technical assistance center focusing on disability inclusion in employment, education, and community. Dr. Bruyère serves as Institute administrative and strategic lead, and also as the PI/Co-PI of numerous research, dissemination, and technical assistance efforts focused on employment and disability policy and effective workplace practices for people with disabilities.

She is the author/co-author of three books and over 120 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on workplace disability inclusion and related topics. Susanne holds a doctoral degree in Rehabilitation Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association. Dr. Bruyère is a past president of the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology (22) of the American Psychological Association, the American Rehabilitation Counseling Association (ARCA), the National Council on Rehabilitation Education (NCRE), and past Board Chair of the Executive Board of the Global Applied Disability Research and Information Network on Employment and Training (GLADNET), and the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF).

Lisa Nishii joined the faculty of the Human Resource Studies department at the ILR School, Cornell University after receiving her Ph.D. and M.A. in Organizational Psychology from the University of Maryland, and a B.A in economics from Wellesley College.

Nishii is an expert on inclusion in organizations. Her research focuses on the confluence of organizational practices, leadership behaviors, and climate for inclusion on individual- and group-level outcomes. Using multi-level and multi-method research designs across a number of large-scale federally funded projects, she has found that leaders play an important role in shaping inclusion. In particular, the extent to which leaders role model inclusive behaviors, clarify the learning and innovation benefits of diversity for the group’s work, and set strong norms related to interpersonal interactions, determines the inclusiveness of their workgroup climates. In turn, workgroup climate has important implications for the authenticity of the relationship that group members develop, the positive versus negative quality of relational ties, the information that is shared among group members, the extent of conflict that is experienced, and ultimately the creativity, financial performance, and turnover rates associated with these groups. Workgroup climate also impacts individual-level experiences of discrimination versus inclusion, as well as engagement and performance. She is currently developing and testing the effectiveness of training interventions for leaders as well as for in-tact teams on how to cultivate workgroup inclusion. Nishii’s earlier research focused primarily on diversity in individual-level cognition and behavior as determined by national culture.

Nishii actively publishes in top-tier journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Science, and serves on the editorial boards for AMR, AMJ, and JAP. She is currently the Chair of the Academy of Management’s Gender and Diversity in Organizations Division, and the Chair of the ILR School’s International Programs. She serves on a variety of college and university-level councils for diversity, globalization, and engaged learning. Nishii also consults with multinational companies, primarily related to diversity and inclusion and organizational assessment.

John Hausknecht is a Professor of Human Resource Studies at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in 2003 from Penn State University with a major in industrial/organizational psychology and minor in management. He received the 2004 S. Rains Wallace Award for the best dissertation in the field of industrial/organizational psychology. Professor Hausknecht’s research primarily falls within the domain of staffing and has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology. Recent papers have examined applicant persistence in selection settings, reactions to company hiring practices, and predictors and consequences of collective-level absenteeism and turnover. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology.

Professor Hausknecht teaches undergraduate and graduate-level courses on human resource management, staffing organizations, and HR analytics. He received the ILR School’s MacIntyre Award for exemplary teaching in 2008. Prior to academia, he worked as a consultant to Fortune 500 firms in the areas of leadership assessment, talent management, and organizational change. Professor Hausknecht is a member of the Academy of Management, American Psychological Association, Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and Society for Human Resource Management.